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Anne Moore
 

From 1820 to 1920, nearly 4 million Irish came to America. On New Years Day 1982, Anne Moore from County Cork arrived with her two brothers. Two things made Anne’s arrival special, one, it was her birthday. The second, she was the first person ever to pass through the doors at Ellis Island.12 million were to follow in Anne’s foot steps, many of those of Celtic decent.
 
 

According to the legend surrounding Anne, she was 14 years old when she left Ireland with her two young brothers. They spent 12 days on board the SS Nevada, including Christmas day.The SS Nevada arrived in New York on December 31,

1891, but the steerage class passengers such as Anne and her brothers were not allowed off the ship until the next day, when they would be processed at the new Federally-operated immigration station on Ellis Island.

Hustled ahead of a burly German by her two younger brothers and by an Irish longshoreman who shouted "Ladies first", Anne Moore was swept away to be questioned by Colonel JohnWeber, and then to be presented with an American 10 dollar gold piece.

Ellis Island

“ From the New York Times, January 2, 1892; Page 2
LANDED ON ELLIS ISLAND
New Immigration Buildings Opened Yesterday
A rosy-cheeked Irish girl the first registered -- room enough for all arrivals -- only railroad people find fault.

...
There were three big steamships in the harbor waiting to land their passengers, and there was much anxiety among the new-comers to be the first landed at the new station. The honor was reserved for a little rosy-cheeked Irish girl. She was Annie Moore, fifteen years of age, lately a resident of CountyCork, and yesterday one of the 148 steerage passengers landed from the Guion steamship Nevada. Her name is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau.

The steamship that brought Annie Moore arrived late Thursday night [Dec. 31, 1891]. Early yesterday morning the passengers of that vessel were placed on board the immigrant transfer boat John E. Moore. The craft was gayly decorated with bunting and ranged alongside the wharf on Ellis Island amid a clang of bells and din of shrieking whistles.

As soon as the gangplank was run ashore, Annie tripped across it and was hurried into the big building that almost covers the entire island. By a prearranged plan she was escorted to a registry deck which was temporarily occupied by Mr. Charles M. Hendley, the former private secretary of Secretary Windom. He asked as a special favor the privilege of registering the first immigrant, and Col. Weber granted the request.”

When the little voyager had been registered Col. Weber presented her with a ten-dollar gold piece and made a short address of congratulation and welcome. It was the first United States coin she had ever seen and the largest sum of money she had ever possessed. She says she will never part with it, but will always keep it as a pleasant memento of the occasion. She was accompanied by her two younger brothers. The trio came to join their parents, who live at 32 Monroe Street, this city”

It was thought for many years that Anne made her way westward, finally settling in Texas, where she died in a street car accident in 1924. Genealogist Megan Smolenyak discovered some anomalies with this history including the fact that the Anne Moore who had died in Texas, had been born in Illinois not in Ireland.Mrs. Smolenyak sponsored a contest, 1000 dollars for evidence of the “real” Anne Moore.After just a few weeks the truth emerged.

Smolenyak teamed up with New York City's commissioner of records, Brian Anderson, and discovered the woman who they have concluded is, in fact, the iconic Annie Moore. They

also found documents with information on Anne’s brother Phillip, which would eventually lead to Anne’s living decedents.Her living descendants include great-grandchildren, a great-nephew and a great-niece. Several of Anne’s decedents were present when the truth was revealed in Sept 2006 at a press conference at the headquarters of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in Manhattan.

The truth of Anne Moore is the truth of many immigrants who came to America. It is the story of a hard life of poverty and strife. Anne Moore, of Ellis Island fame did not go west, did not die in a street car accident. In fact, she never left New York City. Records indicate that spent the rest of her life at different addresses, all in Manhattan'sLower East Side. Anne married a German immigrant named Joseph Schayer who worked at the Fulton Street Fish Market. Anne and her husband had 11 children. Five survived to adulthood, three of whom had children. Annie Moore died of heart failure on 6 December 1924 at the age of 47. Her entire adult life was spent within a few miles ofEllis Island.Six of Annie Moore's children share her grave, a small plot covered with grass and, for the moment, nothing else. Her gave is located in CalvaryCemetery in Queens.

Anne Moore Statue, CountyCork

Anderson, who was awarded the $1000 dollars, donated half of it towards a marker for Anne’s grave, the other half he donated to Anne’s great-niece.The owners of the Anne Moore Pub in New York City also donated $1000 dollars towards a headstone.

The legacy that started with Anne continued until 1954 when Ellis Island closed. Anne’s legacy however continues, in song, in memorial, and in her descendants. Statues both on Ellis Island and in her home port of Cobh (formerly Queenstown), County Cork, Ireland memorialize Anne, and the other 12 million who had the courage to leave everything they had ever known and travel to a new world. The song“Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears”, written by Brendan Graham is based on Anne, and has become a favorite of American and Irish folk singers.

Anne Moore Statue

Ellis Island

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears

By Brendan Graham

Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears
Author: Brendan Graham

On the first day of January
Eighteen Ninety-two
They Opened Ellis Island
And they let the people through.
And the first to cross the threshold
Of the Isle of hope and tears
Was Annie Moore from Ireland
Who was all of fifteen years.

CHORUS
Isle of hope, Isle of tears,
Isle of freedom, Isle of fears,
But it's not the Isle
I left behind...
That Isle of hunger, Isle of pain,
Isle you'll never see again
But the Isle of home
Is always on your mind.

In her little bag she carried
All her past and history
And her dreams for the future
In the land of liberty.
And courage is the passport
When your old world disappears
’Cause there's no future in the past
When you're fifteen years.

CHORUS
When they closed down Ellis Island
In Nineteen Forty-three
Seventeen million people
Had come there for sanctuary.
And in springtime when I came here
And stepped onto its piers,
I thought of how it must have been
When you're only fifteen years.

CHORUS

But the Isle of Home
is always on your mind.

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1374722006

http://irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=18112

http://genealogy.about.com/b/a/255857.htm

http://megansrootsworld.blogspot.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/nyregion/14annie.html?ex=1315886400&en=46f68b1b1e90ae55&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss